Strategy games aren't normally associated with console gaming, instead favouring PC, Mac, and Linux as their platform of choice. This is why it's important for Grand Ages: Medieval to succeed: to bring the genre to a brand new audience. Developed by Gaming Minds Studio, the brains behind Port Royale 3 and Patrician IV, it's a super addictive title that has plenty going for it, albeit with some notable flaws.

Long ago, Tears For Fears sang, "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" – well, Grand Ages: Medieval grants you this possibility. Assuming control over a small settlement, you're given the chance to develop your land by investing in businesses and specialising in goods. You're also tasked with employing merchants, setting trade routes, and establishing an effective military force, as well as some other important responsibilities. Progression in the game's story occurs by meeting deadlines associated with these duties, and accomplishing objectives, set by an NPC.

It's important to note that the game focuses more on developing a functioning economy, building new settlements, and making agreements than waging war against other empires. The combat is simple, with the emphasis instead falling on balancing your production and consumption of goods to turn a profit. This makes up the majority of the title and is actually really gratifying to manage. With 20 distinctive resources available to develop, you'll spend your time experimenting with different assets, as well as researching new technology to speed up the rate and yield of production.

The release's events take place in a condensed world map, featuring Europe, North Africa, the Caucasus, and the Middle East. At the beginning of a playthrough, only European cities will be available to visit, with distant lands instead obscured from view by clouds. These clouds can be removed by sending scouts and settlers into the world to discover new areas. Unfortunately, all of the towns and cities that you'll locate are extremely similar in appearance and don't have much individuality to them beyond the ethnicity of their leader and what goods they can produce. This is disappointing, considering it erases what makes many of these places so interesting in the first place.

With that being said, the ability to explore caves and look for commodities makes up for this slightly. It contributes a fun diversion to the main tasks that you have to carry out, allowing you to pick up additional goods and extra coin to add to your coffers. Should you be struggling to balance your books, it also provides a nice helping hand to get you back on track with your finances and buys you some time.

In addition to single player, Grand Ages: Medieval also has a multiplayer component, which allows you to play with up to eight players. This is a brilliant feature that grants you the ability to attack your friends or aid them in the development of their towns.

Conclusion

All in all, it's refreshing to see a title that focuses on trade and economics instead of battles and warfare. Grand Ages: Medieval shows assigning assets and constructing businesses can make for a compelling gameplay mechanic. With so few games in this genre available on the PS4, it fills the void adequately, providing an engaging experience that'll likely take up much of your time if you can get past the problems.

Hello Jack,I’m surprised at the score you gave, a 7? Really? You mentioned 1 negative thing in your review and you drop 3 points off the score. I guess you never played very many Strategy and Economy games before. All the Civilizations games are mostly similar as well ad Age of Empires. Port Royale 3 and Tropico 5 are great games you should play. I think you should reconsider your score, or maybe you don’t care for this type of game and would rather play and review more mainstream games like COD, BF, Witcher 3, Fallout, FIFA, etc.. This game is for those us who like strategy and economy based games like Civilization and Nobunaga series.Cheers!!!Rob aka GrafP.S. Thank you for your review even though I feel it's a bit low. I was expecting a 8 or 9 since you only had 1 negative thing to say, and the game is running fine and broken like some other games that got good reviews, for example AC Unity and MCC.

(Correction)P.S. Thank you for your review even though I feel it's a bit low. I was expecting a 8 or 9 since you only had 1 negative thing to say, and the game is running fine and NOT! broken like some other games that got good reviews, for example AC Unity and MCC.

You say the combat is quite simple, but don't describe it beyond that. So how does it actually work? What types of units are there? In Civilization you have ranged, melee and siege. Then later there are bombers, carriers and so on. They all perform differently and open up more possibilities. It'd be nice to know that kind of thing.

Also, is the AI any good? Did you notice it doing stupid things? Did it always seem to be overpowered (as per the norm for this type of game, the difficulty setting mainly influences "cheats" for the AI, like bonus resources and research points each turn). How developed is the diplomacy? You mention trading but what about alliances? Can you trade technology? Can you cause friction between other factions? Is there any kind of intelligence gathering with spies or agents? Sabotage? It's always fun in games like this to steal enemy tech, incite rebellions, plant bombs in their cities and other underhanded things.

And yeah, as LieutenantFatman says above, you refer to flaws and problems yet never mention any apart from the cities looking and feeling similar. It did feel like this review was about to get going and then just ended.

As mentioned above by @Matroska, it kind of feels like this review was cut short or was restricted in some way. It feels like a very short review for such a game in a genre which is distinguished by it's depth and variety in gameplays and content. There's nothing necessarily wrong with what you've wrote, it just would have been nicer if you wrote more Maybe if you have time you can answer some of the questions regarding the game that people have posted here in the comments to provide a more rounded review.Looking forward to seeing more from you

Some really useful questions asked on here as i too was eagerly awaiting this review and release for that matter. Will probably buy anyway as im a fan of tropico 5 and will keep me quiet until Fallout 4 graces my doormat

Not entirely sure about it, but looks pretty cool - the scale of the map is pretty damn cool and I can see myself spending a calm Sunday afternoon slowly expanding my territory. Wish the combat was a little more fleshed out, but still pretty tempted. We'll see.